Digital Writing - Blog 2

For my second Blog tutor Jason has requested that I write about my experiences using Google maps as a story telling mechanism.

Well I never would of thought of using Google Maps to tell a story before this class. Being the budding journalist that I am (lol jokes), I decided to try and make it a more practical exercise rather than just making up a random story that lacked any real purpose and placing this story within random locations on Google Maps.

So I decided to make a map of the best places to ride a dirt bike in south-east Queensland. This turned out to be quite interesting and challenging and my eureka moment almost succeeded in chasing away the dullness that had washed over me when I first heard what we had to do.

The most challenging part was trying to find the motocross tracks and riding parks on Google Maps. I visited their websites first to gather an address which I then typed into Google maps in an attempt to determine their location. The funny thing about Google Maps is that it is not always that accurate and at times I found myself searching for up to half an hour for the track or park even though I had the address.

Once I found the track or park I placed a marker on the map and wrote a short spiel on what I thought of the place. If I had not been there I studied the track/parks website in order to get an idea of what it was like. I also added my own picture at the top of each place by uploading the pictures to Jason's' server and linking them to Google Maps. In some cases I also added video footage from you-tube that I had made of my mates and myself riding at the track/park. I also added a link to the park/tracks website with their contact details and address

I added the following tracks/parks to my Google Map story: Manar Park, Rover Park, Reedy Creek MX track, Stanmore MX track, Emu Creek Extreme Retreat, Black Duck Valley MX park, Motocross Mountain, Parklands MX track, Coolum MX track, and the proposed Wyralong Trailbike park.

In the end it turned out to be a fun and enjoyable exercise. I also later realised that my Google Map Story could also be added to the website I was constructing called Bikes n Boards, as Google Maps provides you with an embed code that can be copied and pasted into your website quite easily.

Overall Google Maps is an interactive and easy to use tool for most people with moderate computer knowledge. The only criticism I have on the site is that things I typed or uploaded into my map often disappeared without a trace forcing me to upload them again, often numerous times.

You can find my Google Maps story at the following Link:
 http://maps.google.com.au/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&vps=1&jsv=338b&msa=2